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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Safe House ***
The Vow **1/2
The Innkeepers ***1/2
The Woman in Black ***
The Grey ***
Man on a Ledge ***
Underworld Awakening **
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
Haywire ***
Beauty and the Beast ****
Contraband ***
The Divide *
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
The Devil Inside **
The Iron Lady **
A Separation ***
Pariah ***1/2
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***
The Darkest Hour **
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Anonymous
Essential Killing
Lady and the Tramp
La Jetée
Sans Soleil
Story of a Love Affair
3
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
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San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
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Interview: Roland Emmerich
Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
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The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
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Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
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Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
2010: The Year's Best Films
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Interview: George A. Romero
The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
My Top 100 Films [Updated]
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Film Books

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

 
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© 1997-2012 Combustible Celluloid



Monster (2003)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Cold Serial

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Monster on DVD.

In Monster, Charlize Theron packs on a few extra pounds, slaps on some awful teeth, strips off her makeup, bugs out her eyes and sweats, cries and screams her way through this extraordinary showcase performance as prostitute turned serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

Written and directed by Patty Jenkins, it's hard to recall anything else from this film except for Theron. She's the center of everything, and Jenkins rarely strays from her. We never see footage of Wuornos' parents fretting about her or the police putting clues together. It's her world and everyone else just lives in it. And so Monster both succeeds and fails because of its own intensity. Because the film filters everything else out but Theron/Wuornos, the performance becomes the end-all, be-all of the film.

But Theron is so good that she draws attention to the performance, even as the thin, pretty Hollywood star from The Italian Job disappears completely. It's a showstopper, a fantastic audition tape, like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. If any emotion comes through it's almost as if by accident, as if the sheer thrill of her passionate playing somehow rubbed off on us.

Wournos begins her downfall when she meets a passive, nearly helpless girl, Selby Wall (Christina Ricci) in a bar. The two women fall in love and Wall soon comes to depend on Wournos for financial support. Wournos tries to give up hooking for a straight job, but fails and goes back to hooking. When a dangerous john ties her up and rapes her, she kills him and takes his money, thus beginning a dangerous new cycle.

It will be interesting to look at Monster in retrospect. Surely Theron will take home the Oscar for this performance. No one else this year stands a chance of pleasing the Academy quite as much. Theron has always shown competence in a series of films ranging from good to forgettable, and so this huge leap to Monster almost comes as a shock.

Will Theron continue to get pretty, passive roles after this? Will Monster be an anomaly in her career? If not, what kind of roles could she possibly follow up with? Indeed, Monster is a fascinating experiment, and probably an important milestone in Theron's life story. More so than Monster itself, watching this actress's career from here on out will really be something.

Starring: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen, Annie Corley, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Marco St. John, Marc Macaulay, Scott Wilson, Rus Blackwell, Tim Ware, Stephan Jones, Brett Rice, Kaitlin Riley, Cree Ivey
Written by: Patty Jenkins
Directed by: Patty Jenkins
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and sexual content, and for pervasive language
Running Time: 109 minutes
Date: December 25, 2003

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